I'm known for my strong views on mobile technology, online media, and the effect this has on and communication will have on the public conscious and existing businesses.
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The Nightmare That Keeps Microsoft Awake... Android On The Desktop

Here’s how it worked as the twenty first century opened. You bought a computer, it had Windows OS on it, and many of you would also buy a copy of Office. Microsoft received a cut on pretty much every consumer computer sold.

Fast forward and while the majority of laptops and desktops still carry ‘the Microsoft tax’ there’s a whole strain of computing that Redmond doesn’t get a slice from. The smartphone and tablet market is one that they would love to be heavily involved in and while they are doing their best, the old frenemy of Apple is nicely established with iOS (and OSX is capturing more ‘large’ computers as time passed) and Google are ruling the roost with Android.

Google, with Android, is the biggest threat to Microsoft. Apple operates on a similar principle to Microsoft – still taking a cut at the point of sale, although in Apple’s case they count hardware and software together, where Microsoft focuses on the software side of things. But Google, with their ‘free’ software, is playing a completely different game. The recurring revenue from users through advertising is the key. The more users in Google’s world, the better Mountain View’s bottom line.

What would be a better way to expand their reach that claim not just the web browser, but the whole desktop?

At the moment Google does have Chrome OS, and a number of hackers, developers, and manufacturers are dabbling with it – Samsung’s Chromebook is one obvious example here. But it is a separate OS to Android. Does Google really need two operating systems?

And here’s the rub, and the worrying thing for Steve Ballmer and Microsoft. If Google rolled their OS efforts behind Android, and worked on a solid desktop distribution for Android, how many manufacturers would be ready to make a switch beyond a single alternative OS machine in their portfolio? How many IT departments would be ready to support the system? How many consumers would feel confident with their computer running the same operating system as their mobile phone?

Mainstream users won’t make the jump until they can see that the option is viable, that an Android computer will fulfil all their needs, and that it’s not a weird geeky option… in general people need to see other people using the OS to be confident in switching.

A manufacturer is going to need to bite the bullet and commit to Desktop Android, assuming Google go ahead with the project and give it corporate weight (as opposed to a few indie hackers in the company using the famed twenty percent time).

Microsoft are already feeling the pressure from Google as Google Docs reduced the demand for the Office product suite, and that pressure is going to continue. If Google was to go on the offensive and target the desktop and laptop market with the same reckless vigor that they went after the smartphone market and the mobile advertising dollar… that’s going to put a serious dent in Microsoft’s core revenue stream, while bringing in more eyeballs for Google.

I’ve no information on the likelihood if an Android OS will ever have an official desktop version, but then neither does Microsoft. But I’ll put good money on them having considered the possibility, and what it would do to Microsoft’s business model and what the loss of a decent percentage of the OS market would do to them.

Consumers switching away from Windows to Android? For Microsoft that’s the stuff of nightmares.

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There are so may linux distributions out there – Google has chrome OS and now if and only if they come up with Android OS – it will just add up to the queue – it may just go on and add to the same issue as linux does in general. Free does not mean good always.

I realize I’m speaking from the perspective of a power user – I build my own machines and make my tablets and phones do stuff outside the realm of usual design – but I simply can’t see how Android can replace Windows without massive, massive improvements. It’s simply not designed to take advantage of PC hardware. Even Mac OS doesn’t fully take advantage of its hardware – and keeps falling behind as Apple puts more of its weight behind iOS.

Simply put, mobile OS’s are barely tolerable for mobile. They lack flexibility, true multitasking, and the ability to customize. Linux is okay for server applications. But if you want something that really takes advantage of hardware, is easy for casual consumers to use while still allowing power users to customize to their heart’s content, nothing compares to Windows.

Great perspective Alex, thank you. And I would agree that right now Android (or even Chrome OS) is for the hacker, not the High Street. But if it decided to, it could push forward. After all I remember the early Blackberry inspired Android OS visions!

Well.. Saying linux is only for servers is just not true. Simple fact is that, the most popular distro of Linux, Ubuntu is extreamly user friendly, also it is simple to install. just burn the disc, pop it in, then make a user account. There are no drivers to set up. Most of the apps you need are either already there or are in the shop. It has a nice interface that is extreamly changeable. If you were to even hit a snag and were confued, al you have to do is google it. There are tones of people who have already solved your problem. I have great expreence with it. Many of my friends use it and my 70-75 technology inompotent grandparents love it. They said it was faster and easier than windows.

Actually, Windows 8 RT is great for kids and grandparents. Large tiles, easy to understand. Take the email app – three buttons, respond, delete, and next. What could be simpler?

RE Android… please. They don’t even have accounts on their tablets. You know how easy it is for me to go to ANY acquaintance and say ‘Hey, I need to check my email, can I use your tablet?”. I got the run of their data! Look at company docs, forward them to myself, etc. NO SECURITY.

With Windows, you can store everything regarding business in a separate account – on you would not hand signed-in, to anyone.

When I have to go into the command line to do tasks I can do with a click of the button in Windows, I wouldn’t call Ubuntu user-friendly. For everyday tasks, it’s fine. But for stuff I have to do for enterprise, it just doesn’t work that well. I like Linux – my machine’s dual-boot, but it’s not that business practical, except for servers.

I look at it a different way… When I can explain and have something fixed with a single cut and paste instead of click here, right click this, select that dropdown here select this other thing, drill down here go to this tab scroll halfway down the screen and change the way value in this text box, click ok, select confirm, reboot the computer… It makes my soul smile…

Now if people need help…. Cut this and paste it into the terminal, thank you and go about your day.

I’m speaking from the perspective of someone who works in IT and is familiar with Windows, Linux and MacOS. Saying that it’s not designed to work with desktop hardware is a misnomer. Keep in mind that the core of Android is Linux, the most popular OS on servers. The vast majority of desktop hardware is supported in Linux and all Android would require is a new Kernel recompiled with support for desktop hardware. This is not rocket science, Linux users do this all the time (often without even knowing it). The hardware that Linux installations are working with on servers is certainly far more powerful than even a top end self-built desktop. Also, you’ve obviously never used a desktop distro of Linux if you think that it’s not customizable. Any novice user can change the entire interface in just minutes and every possible tweak you can think of is an option. You should download Ubuntu and install it on an old machine or boot to the live CD to see what I’m talking about. You can also see that it’s easy, even for novice users. I concur with Ewan that what this idea needs is corporate backing.

As far as dualbooting goes, with how cheap RAM has become and how common multi-core processors have become, there’s no reason to think one can’t have a virtual machine running in the background at all times. I’ve been toying with the idea of rolling a linux distro specifically designed to load up VMs and be able to switch between them quickly. Multi monitor setups would allow moving from one OS to the next simply by moving the mouse.

But that’s neither here nor there.

As far as an android desktop goes, I can definitely see it happening. But not until android has been given the kind of power it needs for the desktop market.

Like any machine, it’s not one size fits all. Obviously, the more web based tools your company uses, the easier it will be for you to use a Chromebook. However, with many companies adopting virtual desktops, there’s not much of an issue with using a Chromebook in the enterprise. I connect to a virtual desktop using the Citrix Receiver if I need to work during my off hours. For departments like sales and service, I think it’s a no brainer. Keep in mind, a lot of users are already working from home on their Macs that also don’t natively support the software they use at work. They are typically connecting to a terminal server, or some sort of virtual desktop.

I also disagree with your assertion that installing Linux = more support calls. Ubuntu or Linux Mint are my options when I want to deploy a locked down desktop that can’t be broken by users.

Win8 is a joke. They take the most basic of tasks and bury them so that the average user can’t use it. Kids and grandparents may love it because it dumbs everything down, not because it’s being simplified. The typical office user (vast majority of the buyers) will hate this bloody mess.

Android DOES have accounts for tablet and phones. Even the el-cheapo tablets sold at Toys R Us have that feature available on many tablets. It’s only up to the manufacturer whether or not they have that feature active. If the device is rooted, anyone can have accounts added to the ROM. There are apps for non-root devices that add that feature.

Security? Holy cow are you way off! Android has had encryption for years, firewalls, anti-malware and most any other security feature you could find on a PC and that’s before the device is rooted. If it’s rooted, the security only gets better. If a hole is found developers put out a fix in an app withing a few days. Microsoft often take months to even admit their is a hole. Only last week, they admitted to major holes in IE 6, 7 and 8 which are still in heavy usage in corporate and federal facilities because they move forward at a snail’s pace.

iOS claims they need no security because they keep such tight reigns on their ecosystem. However, it’s their tight ecosystem that is causing them to loose market share at an alarming rate. Not to mention that malware does make it in and it becomes devastating because no one in the ecosystem has any antimalware since they were told they don’t need it.

Interesting perspective but isn’t it a bit of a dangerous mentality to just copy paste and go about your day to make core changes to your system? I would think doing things on a visual level helps teach not just how to solve a problem but what the problem is and how to avoid it in the future.

I think I’m with Alex on this. It’s not just a matter of things that are complex in Windows, the smallest of task in Linux (Ubuntu and others) always seems like much more of a burden than it should be and I think it comes down to a difference in design philosophy and not so much the quality of the products or how much money is put into them.

I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but IMO your image of Linux is a bit dated. I was using almost exclusively Windows machines, both at work and at home, until about three years ago. The few Linux machines I used were servers which I accessed remotely at work. I started using Kubuntu with version 9.10. Right now, I don’t use any windows machines anymore, neither at home nor at work. I think it’s mostly ignorance and FUD for home users and FUD, ignorance and legacy apps for enterprises which prevents a wider adoption of Linux on the desktop, atm., but definitely not some lack of functionality or technical inferiority of Linux.

Obviously, you are still back in the 90s when it comes to Linux. While some distros still have a few problems, there is no need to go to the Linux command line like back in the MS-DOS days. Of course, Ubuntu, one of the most popular, went to Unity (Ubuntu’s version of “”Metro” before “Metro” existed), supported most H/W out of the box. Broadcom was its biggest problem due to Broadcom not releasing the specs (only to Microsoft). Even Windows 8 will no longer support “older” H/W and you have to scavenge for drivers (assuming they will work – but still do on most Linux distros).

Lets hope the PTB at Google do commit to an Android desktop. They could probably build off Gnome 3 or Unity.

Right on. However, Ubuntu 11.04 and beyond has been receiving the same cold reception as Windows 8 “Metro”. Ubuntui users are either sticking with 10.04/10.10 or moving to other distros like ZorinOS, SolusOS or Mint with Mate or Cinnamon. Alex is still think of Linux back in the 90s.

It depends. Open Office and Libre Office are suitable replacements for MS Office. There may be some weird stuff that you can do in MS Office that you can’t do in the other two, but most can be done and they can support the formats. In addition. you have WINE which keeps improving. Also, those “Microsoft command lines”, you can use DOSBox and DOS Emulator. And then what does someone do when what used to work great in XP no longer works in Windows 8 (or 7)? The Microsoft fan-boys tend to forget about that stuff. I had to replace my PC recently and it came with Windows 7. A number of things I used with XP (and work with WINE) do not run on Windows 7. Why should I have to pay for a new release of some S/W that will when the old release does what I need done? I can run it under WINE!

Ok, that’s not completely correct. Android doesn’t use the X Window System, so they wouldn’t be able to use the traditional Linux graphics driver stack. If you’re familiar with Linux, you should know that producing drivers to work with Linux is an uphill battle all the way, with resistance from both sides of the free/non-free divide.